1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a protective cover of a mobile terminal, and more particularly, to a protective cover that covers a window or screen of the mobile terminal or supports the mobile terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a tablet personal computer (PC), which is one of typical mobile terminals is manipulated using a touch screen instead of a keyboard or a mouse. The tablet PC is less convenient than a netbook computer or a laptop computer, but is more portable than a netbook computer or a laptop computer and thus a demand of students or office workers for the tablet PC has arisen.
Tablet PC that are available today include the Galaxy Tab from Samsung Electronics, iPad from Apple Inc., Identity tab from KT, BlackBerry Playbook from Blackberry, Slate from Hewlett-Packard, Folio 100 from Toshiba, Asus Eeepad from Asus, i-station Z3D from I-STATION Corp., and Optimus pad from LG Electronics.
In order to provide various services such as authentication, charging of fees, and a security function to a mobile communication service subscriber, such a tablet PC typically has a subscriber identification module (SIM) card or a universal subscriber identity module (USIM) card that stores individual information.
Further, the tablet PC often has at least one storage medium such as a security digital (SD) card, micro-SD memory card, mini SD memory card, compact flash (CF) card, memory stick (MS) card, smart media (SM) card, and/or multimedia card (MMC) as a memory card that stores and provides information. Such mobile terminals are typically capable of accepting and ejecting such a SIM card, USIM card, and memory card. Hereinafter, an element to be accepted and ejected into and from the mobile terminal, such as the SIM card, USIM card, and memory card are generically referred to as an injection and discharge element.
As the conventional art, referring to FIG. 1, a plurality of injection and discharge elements are mounted, separated by a predetermined gap at a plurality of slots, respectively, formed at an edge of the mobile terminal. In order to prevent separation and movement of the injection and discharge element, a slot protective cover for covering an exposed portion of the slot and the injection and discharge element is provided in every slot.
However, because the enhanced slot protective covers are formed to be separated in plural at an exposed outer surface of the mobile terminal, each slot protective cover protrudes to a predetermined height from a surface of the mobile terminal.
Due to the protruded shape of the slot protective cover, the slot protective cover may be damaged by a friction or an impact from the outside. Further, due to a shape of the slot protective cover formed to be separated at each location of the mobile terminal, the mobile terminal cannot have a pleasing appearance. Further, when producing the mobile terminal, several parts are necessary and, as a result costs for processing for a mold and mass production increases.
As the mobile terminal has a large display, a weight of the mobile terminal increases and it is inconvenient to use the mobile terminal while carrying for a long time, and because the mobile terminal has a panel shape of the exposed display, when carrying the mobile terminal, the display may be easily broken.
In order to solve such a problem, as shown in FIG. 1, when storing the mobile terminal, the conventional protective cover is formed in a structure that protects a window or screen of the mobile terminal and encloses an entire mobile terminal in order to use as a stand of the mobile terminal.
However, because an enhanced protective cover encloses the entire mobile terminal, the protective cover increases a thickness of the mobile terminal and provides a crude appearance. Further, a method of supporting the mobile terminal using the protective cover is inconvenient and a method in which a user opens and closes the protective cover is also inconvenient.
Therefore, a protective cover that safely protects an injection and discharge element and that does not detract from an otherwise pleasing appearance of the mobile terminal while not increasing a thickness of the mobile terminal when mounting the protective cover and that enables to easily store and carry the mobile terminal is requested.